Lions zero in on rare flag hat-trick
The Brisbane Lions are motivated by the chance to create history as they chase two more wins required to complete a rare AFL premiership ‘three-peat’.
Brisbane Lions coach Chris Fagan has urged his players to make the most of their rare shot at history as they narrow their focus on a third consecutive AFL premiership.
The Lions take on Hawthorn in their preliminary final at the MCG on Saturday, with a spot in a fourth successive season decider on the line.
Fagan’s men can join Leigh Matthews’ Lions (2001-2003) and Alastair Clarkson’s Hawthorn (2013-2015) as the only teams in the past 69 years to claim a hat-trick of AFL/VFL flags.
“It’s something that we’ve probably talked about all year long – the opportunity that we’ve got to do something that is rarely done in football,” Fagan said on SEN on Monday.
“It’s been a bit of driving force behind the year but it’s not something that we talk about regularly.
“It’s more something that we talked about at the start of the year: Can we do this? We think we’re good enough to do it, but can we do it?
You might like
“It’s not something that I’ve raised in more recent times, but everyone likes to achieve in life and it’s rare that you get an opportunity to try to win three in a row.
“We’ve been given that and we’re going to try to make the most of it.”
Fagan famously took over as coach when Brisbane were on their knees, and won just five games in each of his first two seasons at the helm (2017-2018).
But the Lions ended a decade-long finals drought the following year and have not missed a September campaign since.
They are only the fourth team to reach at least five consecutive preliminary finals in the AFL era, joining North Melbourne (1994-2000), Hawthorn (2011-2015) and Geelong (2007-2011).
“It’s been a great effort by the group. I’m just the coach, the players are the ones that have got to go out and do it,” Fagan said.
Stay informed, daily
“It is an exceptionally hard thing to do and we’ve given ourselves a chance five years in a row to make a grand final, so it’s a pretty special achievement.
“But we won’t spend too much time thinking about it. We’ve got a game to win this weekend.”
Lions defender Noah Answerth missed last week’s semi-final thumping of Adelaide with an ankle injury and faces a battle to prove his fitness for the Hawthorn clash.
“I’m not sure that Noah’s fit. He wasn’t able to run last week, so we’ll see how he goes this week,” Fagan said.
“That’s one that we’ll know more about as the week goes on.”
There is no doubt over young star Logan Morris, who sat out the latter stages against the Crows with a corked leg.
“He just had a bit of a corkie and we had the game under control,” Fagan said.
“He’s a very important player to us so we chose to take him off in the last few minutes and ice him up.”
-with AAP
Want to see more stories from InDaily Qld in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily Qld as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily Qld". That's it.
